Submitted PhotoCarman-Ainsworth grads (left to right) Terrance Keaton, Kieon Arkwright and Alan Sharp helped St. Clair get to the national tournament for the first time in school history.

Last year was not the easiest season playing basketball for Kieon Arkwright.

The former Carman-Ainsworth star had just completed a trying season at Saginaw Valley State where he barely saw any time on the court and didn’t feel like his skills fit the team’s style of play. Arkwright was given his release from his scholarship, but he didn’t have to look long for a new team.

He ended up at St. Clair Community College with former Carman-Ainsworth teammates Alan Sharp and Terrance Keaton, and the fit has been nearly perfect for both the team and for Arkwright.

“I worked pretty hard in the offseason,” Arkwright said. “Me and my coach (Dale Vos) have a real good relationship. He’s one of the best coaches I’ve ever had. He allows me to play my game. I’ve been waiting for a chance to show people what I can do, and here at St. Clair I’ve got the opportunity.”

The Skippers, led by Arkwright’s 26 points in the regional championship win over Henry Ford Community College at Mott March 6, qualified for the Division II National Tournament for the first time in school history. Arkwright was named MVP of the regional and racked up plenty of awards this season — All-Regional, All-MCCAA and All-Eastern Conference First Team.

“I didn’t really expect to have this much success,” Arkwright said. “But we all worked for it, we talked about it, we knew it could be done.”

Heading into the four-team regional, many looked at St. Clair as the biggest longshot to win it — Mott and Henry Ford were both ranked in the top five nationally, while Oakland Community College, who St. Clair beat in the opening round, was one of the hottest teams in the state, posting impressive wins over both Henry Ford and St. Clair late in the regular season.

“I feel like we were very overlooked,” Keaton said. “Even my old AAU coach (Jared Field), and me and him are still close, he even told me, ‘You guys have no chance at beating Henry Ford or Mott.’ I was like, ‘Are you serious?’ It’s college basketball, March Madness, anything can happen.”

With Mott and Henry Ford matched up in the other opener, and St. Clair watching after their win over OCC, Sharp reacted excitedly when Henry Ford beat Mott, knowing that his team had more confidence against HFCC, who St. Clair split with in the regular season, than Mott, who beat the Skippers in both regular season meetings.

“We matchup better against Henry Ford,” Sharp said. “Even when they did beat us (in the regular season), we thought we should’ve beat them.”

Sharp, who plays guard and comes into games looking to push the pace with his quickness, feels like winning such a tough regional has prepared the team for the national tournament.

“We celebrated for a moment, because it was cool that this is the first time in history that’s happened,” Sharp said. “But we gotta keep going hard and try to bring something back.”

St. Clair’s attack is largely perimeter-oriented, so Keaton, a starting big man, tries to simply focus on helping the team around the basket.

“I just want to play defense, get blocks and rebounds,” Keaton said. “If the scoring comes, that’s good. But we’re undersized already, so I just go in, play tough and try and keep the other team off the boards.”

For all three players, clinching their trip to nationals in their hometown made the accomplishment even more memorable.

“We played at Mott’s gym (growing up),” Keaton said. “I remember working out with Thomas Kennedy and all the other great Mott players, I remember going to watch all of them play in games. It was great to win back at home.”

“It was like a home game for us, we had a lot of friends, a lot of family there,” Arkwright said. “To have them get to see us achieve something like that, it was great.”

“Against Henry Ford, it was so special,” Sharp said. “We just had so many people cheering for us. I even saw a bunch of people with Mott shirts on cheering for us because we’re from Flint.”

All three have credited hard work as the primary reason they had such a successful season. Their work ethics were present even as high school players at Carman-Ainsworth.

“I’m just proud of them,” Carman-Ainsworth coach Bob Root said. “Terrance, I’m happy to see him playing basketball again. Alan’s one of the nicest young men you’re ever going to meet and Kieon’s the same way. Those guys were crucial when we won the league championship two years ago. That’s a special group of guys and that’s tremendous what they did.”